28 | Britain and India 1845–1947

Study Guide: AS Questions

In the style of Edexcel
Source 1
From: a letter sent from Queen Victoria to Prime Minister Lord
Salisbury, at the end of the nineteenth century.
The viceroy must hear for himself what the feelings of the natives
really are, and do what he thinks right if we are to go on
peaceably and happily in India, and to be liked and beloved by
high and low. And not try to trample on the people, continually
reminding them and making them feel that they are a conquered
people.

Source 2
From: a letter to a Kesari newspaper in 1900 quoted in
S.R. Mehrotra, Towards India’s Freedom, published in 1978.
We do not believe our condition will be any better by the
exchange of the British rule for that of any other nation. Since we
are not in a position to gain our independence by fighting with
the English, it is desirable that we should advance step by step
behaving in a conciliatory manner with the British.

Source 3
A photograph of part of the great procession of the Indian
princes at the Delhi Durbar in 1903. This occasion was organised
by the viceroy, Lord Curzon, for the princes to acknowledge the
Coronation of Edward VII.